Every year we carefully select an industry led jury to pass judgement on our selected films. The jury work together to decide which films warrant our coveted annual ‘REAPER AWARDS’.
The jury presents awards across a range of categories, including BEST FEATURE, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SCREENPLAY, BEST SCORE, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, BEST ART DIRECTION, BEST SHORT, BEST SFX and BEST SCARE. They may also present additional awards to recognise films or filmmakers whose work particularly shines in other areas of creative achievement.
The winners will be announced just after the festival in mid October.
Faced with the daunting task of debating and deliberating over this year’s lineup, and determining those most deserving a visit from the Reaper, are…
DR XAVIER ALDANA REYES
Xavier is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he co-founded the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies in 2013. His publications on horror cinema include the books Body Horror: Biology, Biopower, Biotechnology (2026), Gothic Cinema (2020), Spanish Gothic (2017) and Horror Film and Affect (2016). He is past president of the International Gothic Association (2022-2026) and a founding member of the BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Horror Studies special interest group. Xavier is chief editor of the Horror Studies academic book series and has contributed essays and audio commentaries to several home entertainment releases by BFI Video, Eureka, Arrow, Radiance, Severin, Second Sight and Imprint. He acted as jury member for Grimmfest in 2023.
TIM SCAPING
Tim is a London-based product and marketing specialist with over 20 years’ experience in home entertainment, including a decade as new release film buyer at HMV. He joined 101 Films in 2017, where he developed the UK independent label’s physical offering, launching the premium Black Label and producing collector’s editions of films including David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Christopher Nolan’s Memento. He became Director of Product & Marketing in 2022, and in 2024 joined Trinity Content Partners, expanding his remit across the company’s broader publishing business, with responsibility for content, production and marketing.
TOM ATKINSON
A lifelong horror fan, Tom Atkinson is the co-founder and editor of LoveHorror.com, which has been championing the genre since 2008. Alongside overseeing the site’s news, reviews, interviews and festival coverage, he is also a writer for Flickering Myth and LA-based entertainment site Film Threat. Over the years, Tom has reviewed countless films, interviewed filmmakers and actors from across the horror world, covered some of the UK’s biggest genre festivals and events, and somehow managed to convince himself that watching horror films counts as a sensible way to spend most of his free time.
JENNIFER TRUDRUNG
Jennifer is an actor, writer and producer whose love of horror stretches both in front of and behind the camera. As an actress, she has appeared in film and television including The Vampire Diaries, Goosebumps and Halloween Kills. As a writer and producer, she has built an impressive body of horror work through her production company Night Frizz Productions, including the award-winning Stephen King adaptation Here There Be Tygers and Unbearing. Her feature screenplay The Nest was released in 2021 (And played at Grimmfest), while her work frequently explores female-driven stories and themes of motherhood, ageing, grief and parenting, twisting the everyday into something dark and unsettling. She is currently continuing to develop new horror projects, including her feature film directorial debut, The Virgins, which she wrote and directed.
The festival team wishes them, and the films and filmmakers under discussion, the very best of luck!